The Silver Trio
by zebragirl14
Summary: The Wizarding World can be a scary place for someone who's just found out that they're a witch, luckily Beth has just found out her two best friends are as well! What happened the year before Harry and the gang arrived at Hogwarts? With vampires, centaurs and Snape to deal with, it just proves that the adventure in the school was happening long before The Boy Who Lived arrived!
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

**Authors Note:** **Okay so this is my first story ever! It's just for fun and about me and my friends (of the same names) so it's mostly OOC but I hope you'll still enjoy it, and reviews would be most appreciated! Thanks, and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything to do with the franchise.**

A loud shrieking sound followed by a thud is what woke Beth Robertson the first morning of her holidays. She groaned as she rolled over and pulled the covers over her head. She knew she should probably check on what had happened to cause that series of noises, but she also knew she was tired, and with the holidays officially in swing she planned to sleep for as long as she possibly could. After an extra few minutes deliberating she finally decided to get up.

The noise, it turned out, was her brother falling down the stairs. She gave an annoyed sigh over her breakfast at the fact that was the reason she'd had to get up. She'd been having an amazing dream. The specifics of it were fading the more she tried to remember it, but it was as though she'd been flying. Colourful sparks had jumped in the air around her and she briefly remembered seeing a black cat run past her as she soared. It had been weird, yet wonderful.

It was 3 o'clock exactly when Beth made it onto the number 30 bus, following her usual morning of uneventful happenings. She hated getting the bus. It was always too full and smelt like sweaty people, but with all the adults in her life away or at work it sadly was the only way to get to Elaine's house.

The bus ride wasn't as long as she had made it seem in her head though. She swung her bag onto her shoulder as she started the short walk from the bus stop to her friend's house, her headphones blaring in her ears.

Elaine Daglish had been friends with Beth since they were 8 years old. She stood at her bedroom window looking out excitedly for her friends. It was her turn to host their annual first-day-of-the-holidays sleepover, so while her room normally felt quite big, the two camp beds placed in front of her wardrobes were giving the room an unnatural feeling of compactness.

As soon as she saw Beth appear at the top of her drive Elaine grinned and ran to her door. Beth had only managed to raise her arm to knock on the door when it swung open, revealing her excited friend behind it.

"Hi Beth!" Elaine said, her hazel eyes shining with eagerness.

"Hey Elaine." Beth smiled back as Elaine gestured for her to come in.

Dumping her bag on the middle camp bed Beth looked around her friend's room. It hadn't changed since she was last there; the huge oak wardrobes behind her were the same, as was Elaine's bed in the corner of the room, covered in plain, blue sheets that matched the walls. The same posters were staring back at her, and the TV near the door still had a big mess of different video games and DVDs scattered in front of it. This was all as familiar to her as her room was to Elaine.

"What time did you tell Em?"

"Same time as you. She'll just be late."

Emily Smith was their other best friend, and made the third in their trio. It just happened that as they said this Emily's mam pulled up outside of the house, popping the boot for her daughter to get her stuff out of it. After shouting a quick 'thanks' to her mam, Emily ran up Elaine's driveway and knocked on the door.

"About time!" Was the first thing Elaine said to her friend as she opened the door to let her in. "We've been waiting ages for you!"

"Don't exaggerate Elaine." Emily muttered, making her way to Elaine's bedroom. "I'm barely five minutes late. Hey Beth."

"Hey." Beth smiled back.

That was when the party really began. After dumping their stuff the girls went straight outside to Elaine's back garden where they could play on her trampoline. This did mean that they had to go through the living room where Elaine's family were all sitting around and chatting.

"Hi girls!" Elaine's mum smiled at them. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Well I didn't really get a chance to knock…" Beth replied, looking between Elaine's mum, dad and grandma sitting on the two sofas' that took up most of the remaining space that wasn't already taken up by the TV and huge wooden bookshelf containing all kinds of books and kick-knacks they had collected from over the years.

"Well just say when you're ready for dinner and I'll phone up. I was thinking we could order in?"

The girls nodded in agreement and murmured their thanks before continuing outside where they spent the new few hours finding all sorts of new ways to almost fall off a trampoline, even with a safety fence around it.

"You guys realise in 6 weeks we'll be starting secondary school?" Beth said as she bounced around her two friends sitting cross-legged in the middle of the trampoline. "I wish we were all going to the same one though…"

Emily and Elaine exchanged solemn faces but didn't say anything.

"Promise we'll keep in touch though." Beth said with one final bounce in which she too cross her legs mid-air causing her landing to throw her friends onto their sides. They laughed.

"Of course we will." Emily smiled, though it was rather weak. "We'll write… or text or whatever. And… see each other in the holidays! Like now!"

"Yeah. It's our tradition isn't it?" Elaine shrugged as she shoved Beth onto her side too. "Stop worrying man. Hey, do you guys want to go to the park tomorrow? If the weather is like this I mean."

And with that the subject was changed to making plans for the holidays, before going inside to ask Elaine's mum to order a large pizza.

Back in her room Elaine picked a movie which they didn't really watch because they were talking, and later eating, over the top of it, discussing anything and everything that had happened to them recently. Beth had just come back from the bathroom when there was a loud snapping noise. Emily and Beth turned their heads in Elaine's direction. She was leaning on her bed, her eyes shut and grimacing.

"What was that?"

Elaine sat up. "Would you believe me if I said my leg?"

"No."

"Then it was…" She pulled back her pillow to reveal two long pieces of varnished wood, which clearly used to be one until Elaine had lain on it. "...a stick."

"Why do you have a stick in your bed Elaine?" Emily asked raising her eyebrows. It was an expression Beth and Elaine were very used to seeing from their friend when they did something wrong.

"Uh, that's a good question…" Elaine chewed her tongue, looking around her room as if that would suddenly provide her with an answer. "Well firstly it's Zoe's stick, and she's now gonna kill me. Secondly, I dunno why it's in my bed. I think she collects them or something." She paused, slipping the two pieces into her draw. "My sister is very weird isn't she?"

She still wasn't meeting their eyes, and though Emily gave her a scathing look they accepted the story without further question.

After a few more minutes of chat Elaine went to say goodbye to her parents as they left, while her two friends got ready for bed. Elaine's gran made them some hot chocolate and soon the end to a great although extremely normal day came to an end.

Beth had the same dream that night, though she could barely remember it in the morning again. She was flying again, but instead of darkness with the odd flashes of colour, she was soaring over busy streets and roads, red double decker buses and, once she saw the London Eye, knew she must be in London. This was weird considering she lived right in the north of England and only been to London once when she was very little, but she couldn't control where she was going. She just kept soaring higher and higher into the clouds until the London Eye looked like a dot below. She was joined in the air by hundreds of different kinds of owls when the various sparks of colour appeared and she woke up just before a dark tawny owl collided with her head.

After taking a minute to compose herself, shaking her head Beth got up and went to the bathroom to get dressed. Why did this bizarre dream keep coming to her, and what did it mean? Or did it mean nothing and she was just worrying too much about nothing? She splashed cold water on her face and went back to Elaine's bedroom trying to push the remaining thoughts of the dream out of her head. She could tell her friends of course, but it was just a dream. It didn't mean anything.

Emily had woken up and was drawing a smiley face on Elaine's arm when Beth got back. She sniggered at her friend's immaturity, sat on her bed and pulled on her trainers. No, she wouldn't say anything. Her friends probably had weird dreams about places they hadn't been to before as well. Nothing to worry about.

After a few minutes of chat, Elaine too woke up. Seeing the drawing on her arm straight away she threw her pillow at Emily and war began. The pillow fight didn't last long however, as Elaine's gran knocked on the door to ask what they wanted for breakfast.

"So what are we going to do today?" Emily asked as she took a bite of toast.

"I thought we'd agreed on the park?"

"If the weather was alright! You can see the dark clouds already forming from here!"

Beth glanced out Elaine's bedroom window and saw Emily was right. There were ominous dark clouds forming overhead, rain was a sure thing today. There was however, something else also in the sky. Three things actually. Coming straight towards them.

"Uh, guys?" Beth said, dropping her remaining toast back on her plate.

"What Beth?"

"What's that and why is it heading towards us?"

She pointed to the window without taking her eyes off the three moving objects outside. Now that they were closer Beth could see they had wings and so must be birds, but what birds would be so stupid as to fly straight into a glass window?

There was a squeak of bedsprings as Elaine jumped off her bed and ran to the window to throw it open. Beth opened her mouth to ask why she thought that was even slightly a good idea, when in the three birds flew. They all took a lap of Elaine's room before landing gracefully on Elaine's bed with a hoot.

The three girls all stood by the window staring at the owls that had just flown in through the window. They all exchanged puzzled looks before the middle owl (a dark tawny, just like from Beth's dream) jumped forward and stuck its leg out. Attached to it, as on the other two birds, was a white envelope with dark green writing on one side and a red wax seal on the other.

It was Elaine who took the step forward towards the bird. Beth couldn't help but hold her breath. She loved animals, owls especially, but she'd never actually been near one, let alone seen one fly through her friend's bedroom window! And here Elaine was, walking towards it as if this was her usual method of receiving post.

Elaine untied the letter carefully, pausing only once to glance worryingly at her friends. As soon as she had finished the bird flapped it's large wings and went to perch on top of Elaine's wardrobe.

"Elaine Daglish, 28, Henderson Road…" Elaine had been reading the front of the letter, but trailed off with a knowing look in her eye. She flipped the other two letters round too and read their addresses.

"Emily Smith and Beth Robertson… there's one for each of us."

She suddenly seemed to get very excited and was much less gentle in untying the letters from the other two owls, who hooted indignantly at her before joining the other on top of the wardrobe. Beth didn't know what to say, and neither apparently did her two friends. Elaine was busy ripping open her letter, while Emily apprehensively walked over and took her letter in both of her hands, biting her lip.

"W-what is going on?" Beth finally managed to get out, looking between her two friends who didn't answer her. She still hadn't moved, but the expression on Elaine's face certainly had. Her eyes quickly scanned the letter and her grin grew wider with each passing moment. Emily had only managed to flip the letter over and examine the red seal keeping it closed when Elaine jumped up and let out a squeal of delight.

"Why didn't you guys tell me?!" She shouted, her arms flying above her head.

"Tell you what? What's going on?" Beth asked again, earning her a confused look from Elaine. This made her a little angry as Elaine seemed to understand what was happening, so if anyone had the right to be confused it was her. At this point however Emily gasped and then matched Elaine's grin.

"You mean you're going to Hogwarts too?!"

Elaine's attention snapped to Emily again and the two grinned at each other for a few moments before jumping up and grabbing each other in a hug. Beth just watched as her friends embraced shouting things like "I can't believe it!" and "How after 4 years could we not have realised?!"

After they and finally stopped jumping, the two sat down on the bed and compared letters.

"It's all of my family Em!" Elaine cried, still shaking with excitement. "My whole family! Gran, parents, sisters, everyone! It's been so hard to hide it from you whenever you came round!"

"I can't believe it!" Emily stated with a bewildered expression. "It's my mam in my family. Though technically my dad too. He's a muggle-born…"

After this there was silence in the room, besides the sounds of the owls scratching on top of Elaine's wardrobe, and the distant sounds of the TV on in the living room where Elaine's gran had no idea of the events going on in her granddaughter's bedroom.

"I'll say again: _What_ is going on?! Guys?"

Her friends exchanged glances. Their expressions had suddenly changed from ones of excitement to apprehension. Emily took the untouched third letter off the bed and held it out for Beth to take.

"Just… read this Beth. It'll explain… some of it."

Anger and confusion mixed with her curiosity. After a few moment the latter won out and she snatched the envelope from Emily's hand. On the front in fancy, green writing it read:

Miss Beth Robertson

Elaine's Bedroom

28 Henderson Road

Tyne and Wear

Beth looked up at them with a puzzled expression, before examining the red seal closing the envelope. It had a crest divided into four sections on it but she couldn't really make out what else it had on it. She opened it and almost dropped the letter once she had finished reading.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Dear Miss Robertson,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1st. We wait your owl not later than August 5th.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress.


	2. Chapter 2: You're A Witch

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything to do with the franchise.**

Beth didn't speak for what felt like a lifetime. She just sat there as her eyes furiously scanned the page in her hands, picking out the most absurd words.

_Witchcraft and wizardry… _What even was that supposed to mean? Magic? But… but that didn't exist. It couldn't. She wasn't some character in a fantasy story where amazing and special things happened in her life. This had to be some kind of weird joke.

She shook her head slightly and pulled back from the letter, as if looking at it from a distance would help make perfect sense of things. She flipped it around and to her surprise found more fancy green writing on the back.

_A ministry wizard will be arriving at the address located on the envelope of this letter at 4 o'clock, the day of delivery to inform you of all you need to know. We apologise for inconvenience this may cause, but the ministry is very understaffed at this time._

She didn't understand what any of this meant. What ministry? And a _wizard_ was coming? Still not speaking Beth lifted her head up to look at her two best friends. Emily was standing anxiously by Elaine's wardrobes, biting her lip as the three owls above her head continued to scratch and shuffle around. Elaine was sitting on Emily's camp bed, legs crossed and staring at her with wide, curious eyes. She could tell that they were waiting for her to speak but all of her words were failing her at that moment.

"Beth?" asked Emily tentatively.

"Is this some kind of joke?" She said finally looking between them both.

Emily took a step forward, her letter still clutched in her hands.

"Beth. I swear to you this no joke. It's real." She paused. "Magic is real."

Beth stared back at her as if she was speaking some alien language. It was then there was a soft knock on the door and Elaine's gran put her head around the door.

"Sorry girls, I just thought I heard…" She had started speaking but upon seeing the three girls with anxious faces, holding letters in their hands with owls hooting indignantly above them she stopped and raised an eyebrow in a curious way.

After a long pause she said "Well I don't know what you kids get up to these days, but I'm staying out of it."

"Gran!" Elaine said through gritted teeth as she jumped up from the bed. "We're having a… a situation here."

Elaine whispered a brief summary of what was happening while Beth and Emily just watched, still not really sure what to say. Elaine's gran looked startled once Elaine had finished talking and looked between all the girls and the owls before covering her mouth with her hand.

"No! All three of you?"

"Gran, while this is surprising to all of us, it seems to be especially surprising to _Beth_…" Elaine told her gran, raising her eyebrows and hoping she'd get the message. "So can you please just let us try to… explain it? Please?"

"I'll call your parents." She nodded. She had just turned to leave when she quickly turned and called out to Beth. "It's okay you know dear. I know it can seem overwhelming now, but once you've experienced it you'll be fine." And then she hurried away, muttering statements of worry under her breath.

Elaine closed the door behind her and turned back to the others. "Sorry about that, now where were we? Okay, so yeah, Beth you're a witch. Now what do you guys want to do today?"

"Elaine!" Emily yelled, clearly annoyed at her friends lack of tack. "Is that your idea of being gentle?"

"Well I didn't kick her!" Elaine rolled her eyes and sat back down on Emily's camp bed.

Beth, who had been watching all of this in silence, stared down at her letter again and chewed on her tongue. She felt… nothing really. Like this was just some elaborate dream. Sure what was going on was weird but there was no proof magic existed, it just couldn't. It didn't make sense.

"Prove it then." She said finally.

"What's that Beth?"

"Prove it." She looked up at them again. "If magic is real like you claim, do some! Turn me into a toad or something…"

Emily frowned. "It doesn't work like that Beth."

"Convenient…"

"We can't do magic outside of school. Unless it's raw magic." At the confused looks on both Beth and Elaine's faces Emily quickly clarified. "That's accidental magic, the stuff we can't control."

Beth shook her head as she ran a hand through her hair. "Well then there's no proof. This is totally crazy!" Her voice rose at the end through frustration and anger. "You guys are just making some kind of weird joke. Or I'm dreaming! Either way this really isn't happening."

"Beth I promise you it is…"

At Beth's shaking head Elaine got up and sat down next to her. She stared at the floor for a moment and then at Beth before speaking. "Think Beth. Have you ever made something weird happen? Something you couldn't explain to your parents, or even yourself?"

This made Beth look up. Elaine had a sad smile on her face as they looked at each other, Beth's mouth half-open though nothing was coming out. Her thoughts were whirring into action, her brain picking out memories she hadn't thought about in years. The first things she remembered involved her brother. Once they'd been arguing about something, Daniel leaning against her door as they had yelled at each other. Beth had had such a surge of rage pass through her, something that was very rare for her, when suddenly her younger brother had fallen backwards, along with the door, and hit his head. It had seemed just an accident at first; an old door that shouldn't have had too much weight applied to it. But when she and her mother had inspected it, they could find neither any loose screws nor the actual hinges that had previously held the door in place. It was as if they had simply vanished. Though that idea had seemed completely illogical at the time, could she have really done it?

There was also the time when spilled her mums nail varnish all over the living room carpet. She was very young but had known as soon as she did it she was going to be in a lot of trouble. She'd been in a state of anxiety for hours, but as soon as her mother had stepped foot in the living room later that day it was like nothing had happened at all. The carpet was clear. Later Beth found the bottles back up in her mum's bedroom, right where she'd taken them from, full to the brim with the same dark red colour that had earlier been splashed across the carpet. She'd been confused sure, but was so relived to not have gotten into trouble that she didn't think too much on it.

Countless other memories resurfaced as well, flying around her head in a giant, confusing jumble. The time the scratches on her arm from her cat had healed themselves within the hour. The time she fell off the climbing frame at school... she'd seem to slow down just before she hit the ground, so she didn't even get hurt from a fall that would have surely left some bruising on anyone else.

Anyone, except her…

Beth open and closed her mouth like a goldfish as her eyes widened at Elaine. Her friend just gave her a look of understanding and gave her a pat on the shoulder.

"I should probably get them some water…"

The owls on Elaine's wardrobe had started to become restless, their scratching and hooting gradually getting louder. Elaine got up and left the room, leaving Emily watching Beth, who had put her head back in her hands, with a very anxious expression.

They did not speak, both caught up in their own thoughts. Elaine returned moments later with a small bowl full of water for the owls. She stood on her bed and pushed the bowl towards the owls that immediately crowded around it and began to drink.

"So Beth…" Elaine said breaking the silence that seemed to keep creeping up on them.

"This is crazy." Beth said in a quiet voice. "And yes, I can name a few weird things that have happened… but it's all circumstantial!" She added after seeing the looks on her friend's faces. "I've still never seen any actual magic done and until I can see some… I'm sorry but I just can't believe any of this."

Emily and Elaine looked at each other as a new silence filled the room. They seemed to be having a telepathic conversation. Emily gave a small nod and left the room, while Elaine opened the draw by her bed. This annoyed Beth more than it should have. They were treating her like _she_ was the crazy one. She said nothing though as Elaine took out the 'stick' she had broken earlier and held them out for her to take.

"Just _look_ at it Beth."

She rolled her eyes but took the two pieces of wood from her friend's hands. It was clear close up they were definitely not parts of a stick that you'd find outside on a tree. It was thicker for one; with dark polished wood that got lighter towards the point. It clearly had a patterned handle, and though in two parts, it was held together by a long silvery hair. It was clear to her what Elaine was implying this was: a wand.

"A stick was a pretty lame cover up." Elaine admitted, smiling slightly.

Just then Emily came back into the room, followed by Elaine's gran. Beth's eye fell straight to what she now assumed to be a wand in the woman's hand and sat up a bit straighter.

"Your parents will be here any minute." Elaine's gran said, nodding at Elaine. "They don't have to exactly hide magic from your friends anymore, so they're coming by floo powder now."

Once she said this she sat on the bed beside Beth, giving her a gentle look.

"Now Beth, dear, I don't think this is the best idea, and I'm not trying to scare you…" She paused. "But the girls say you need to see some proof, so…"

She stood up, just as Beth moved back on the bed so that her back was against the wall. It wasn't accurate but she somehow felt safer with her back against the wall, and she guessed at least some part of her knew what she was about to see.

Elaine's gran cleared her throat and raised the wand in front of her. She spoke no words, but as soon as she had finished waving her wand at a stack of books at the foot of Elaine's bed, they were raised high into the air, rotating around each other a few times before landing neatly on top of Emily's camp bed. Beth didn't even have time to process this before Elaine's gran flicked her wand again, this time crying "Avis!"  
A flock of very small blue birds seemed to shoot out of the tip and Beth found herself moving away from the wall, surprising even herself as she slipped off the bed and stood up, watching the birds quickly do a lap of the room before flying out of the rooms open window.

Beth didn't realise her mouth had been open until she tried to speak.

"What – I just… I didn't… That was amazing!"

"What?"

"That was magic! Real magic! You guys weren't joking!" Beth exclaimed. Her smile had grown tenfold since they had begun this conversation, and her friends couldn't help but smile back at her excitement.

"So you believe us now do you?" Elaine smirked.

"You really aren't messing with me?" Beth asked again, sitting back down on the bed again.

"No man! Do I have to get my gran to levitate the TV or something?!"

"Oh no dear, I wouldn't do that. It'd most likely end up broken…"

"But then you could repair it with magic as well!"

Beth was now staring at her hands like it was the first time she'd seen them. There was magic inside of her, real magic. She supposed she should be confused, scared even, but no she wasn't. It was excitement the flowed through her. This was all like something out of a fairy-tale.

It was at that moment a whooshing and crackling noise came from down the hall. Everyone looked towards the door just as Elaine's parents and sister Zoe appeared. Elaine's mum looked between her daughter, Beth and Emily, and the owls before raising her eyebrows.

"Well, I think no one expected these turn of events, did they?"

Zoe, who had been grinning madly behind her mother, bounced over to her little sister and threw an arm around her, making Elaine roll her eyes with annoyance.

"We're gonna have so much fun at Hogwarts Elaine! And I'm so jealous your friends get to go with you as well! I had to leave all of my muggle friends behind…"

"You didn't have any muggle friends." Elaine pointed out as she removed her arm from her shoulders. "Still don't."

"Yeah well, neither do you apparently." She smiled, glancing at Beth and Emily.

"I think I'll go make us all some tea…" Elaine's dad muttered and slowly made his way back into the hall.

"You don't have to do it the muggle way anymore!" Zoe called and followed him out.

Mrs. Daglish took a few more steps into the room and sat on the edge of the bed besides Beth. She looked tired, Beth though, like she had been up since the early hours of the morning. She put her bag down next to her, and instead picked up Beth's Hogwarts letter which she had left next to her.

"Mum, do you mind giving me a few minutes with the girls please?"

Elaine's gran gave her a small nod, grabbed the girl's plates which still had half-eaten toast on them and hurried out of the room. Mrs. Daglish's eyes were scanning quickly over the page. Once she was done she flipped it over and read the back as well. Once she had finished she looked very seriously at Beth, who felt a little intimidated. Elaine's mum was usually very smiley, so seeing her with such a sombre look was quite unsettling to her.

"Beth, I know the girls have probably said this already, and I know this is probably a very scary and unbelievable situation for you to be in…"

"It's okay Mrs. Daglish." Beth said, her voice sounding weaker than she felt. "Elaine's gran's just done some magic. I… I think I believe now."

Mrs. Daglish nodded slowly, but the stern look still stayed on her face. She paused for a minute, and Beth could practically see the cogs in her head turning, trying to decide what to say.

After a minute or so she finally turned back to her and said "Well as long as you believe. Getting your parents to is a completely different matter though."

Her parents! Beth hadn't even though about them. They had definitely never showed any magical ability in their lives or even any interest in things like that. How would they react to seeing Elaine's gran conjure birds from mid-air? She didn't imagine that they'd think it was as cool as she did. And what about her brother? Did this mean Daniel would have magical blood just like she did?

Mrs. Daglish seemed to read her mind and gently patted her on the shoulder. "But we'll deal with that later. There are some things you should know first though Beth…"

She gestured to the others, who had still been standing awkwardly by the open window, to come closer. They did, both taking a seat on Beth's camp bed, their acceptance letters still clutched in their hands.

"First things first: a muggle is a name for a non-magical person." She explained.

That certainly cleared up a lot of confusion in Beth's head.

"You are a muggle-born witch, meaning your family tree consists of a lot of muggles. It's possible that you probably had some wizarding blood in your family a long time ago which died out and has now resurfaced in you. But this is not the moment to be thinking of your family history."

All three girls were watching Elaine's mum with wide eyes, like she was a story teller about to tell them the greatest adventure ever told. Even Elaine, who had clearly grown up around all of this, looked quite interested in what her mum was saying. The owls on Elaine's wardrobe, realising they were going to be there a while, had settled in for the morning by putting their heads under their wings and huddling in the corner together.

"There is a whole magical world that you've never known about Beth, right under your nose. We have a government – The Ministry of Magic – who make the wizarding laws we have to abide by. Elaine's dad works for them. Apparently it's all quite similar to the muggle government. I work for The Society for the Assistance of Muggle-borns, who I guess are part of the ministry as well because we're government funded. It's actually my job, to come to speak to people like you and explain what the wizarding world is all about."

"Oh my gosh, really?" Emily apparently found this news a lot more exciting than the others did.

There was another pause as Mrs. Daglish smiled at her.

"Ah Emily, Elaine's gran says you…"

"It goes back at least 4 generations on my mum's side of the family." Emily explained quickly. "5 if you include me and my sister. My dad's muggle-born."

She nodded. "You get the best of both worlds don't you? Emily is what we call 'half-blood' Beth. Wizards would have died out had they not married muggles or muggle-borns you see, so there isn't a lot of traditional, 'just wizard, no muggle' families anymore. I mean, certainly our family-" She nodded to Elaine. "-have a lot of witches and wizards in them. My grandmother I know traced our family tree back until at least… but I'm getting off topic slightly."

Beth's head was spinning. Wizarding blood seemed to be quite complicated, so maybe it was good she came from muggles. It at least made explaining things a lot easier.

Mrs. Daglish gave a small cough and then continued. "Anyway, I've been off work for a while. Had quite a back-log of paperwork! So when I went into work this morning, you can imagine my surprise when I see 'Beth Robertson' written as my first go-to of the day!"

"Wait, so _you're_ the ministry wizard supposed to be coming to talk to me at 4 o'clock?" Beth was genuinely surprised, as were her friends, judging by the looks on their faces. Mrs. Daglish just smiled in response.

"I guess I'm a bit early?" She laughed. "Well of course I couldn't be sure it _was _you, but a few moments later Elaine's gran rang saying you'd all received Hogwarts letters and so there had to be no doubt. I quickly explained the situation to my boss before going to the ministry to get Elaine's dad. I ran into Zoe on the way here so brought her along too. I thought she'd be a useful source to tell you all about what Hogwarts is actually like."

As if waiting for a queue Zoe threw open Elaine's bedroom door with two cups of tea in her hands. She took a few steps into the room, and was followed by four more cups floating behind her. Beth moved backwards, her eyes wide at the sight. Mrs. Daglish seemed to notice her discomfort, as she looked from her to her daughter with a disapproving look.

"What? She's gonna have to get used to magic sometime!" Zoe exclaimed, passing one of the cups to Emily who took it from her gratefully.

"Your dad better have done that charm." Mrs. Daglish said warningly. "No magic outside of Hogwarts."

"I know!" She exclaimed at her mother again, before turning to the girls. "I'm going into my fourth year at Hogwarts. And Becca will be going into her fifth. Speaking of which, where are our Hogwarts letters? Shouldn't they all arrive at the same time?"

Her mother shrugged and glanced at her watch. Beth did the same. It wasn't even 12 o'clock yet, but Beth felt like she'd taken in enough information to last her a lifetime. Her mum and dad would be at work by now, Daniel probably at their grans house. She wondered how on earth she would tell them, and how they'd react. She guessed they probably wouldn't believe her, even if she did get Elaine's family to levitate the TV. She could still hardly believe it either…

"Beth?"

She looked up to see Mrs. Daglish staring at her, a smile final appearing on her face which she was relieved to find calmed her down a lot more.

"Sorry?"

"I asked you where your parents would be right now."

"Work." She said simply. "They won't finish until 4."

Mrs. Daglish nodded and patted her on the shoulder briefly before standing up. Seeing Elaine, Zoe and Emily do the same Beth also got up, though she didn't know why. Was her talk over now? Because she felt like there was still a lot more she should have to know.

"Right well, technically I'm not allowed to give you the ministry official talk unless you have a parent or guardian with you. I don't really want to have to go through it twice anyway. So, I'm going to go back to work to sort some stuff out, but I'll ring your parents and be back by we'll all have a nice chat about… this. For now I leave you to bombard the girls here with questions. Is that okay?"

Beth nodded. It was all she could do since her voice seemed to have stopped again. Elaine's mum grabbed her bag, flashed her a quick smile, said goodbye to the girls and left again, leaving Beth wondering if this whole situation was real or in fact her dreams were just getting more and more elaborate.


End file.
